---
title: A sprightly tailor was employed by the great Macdonald, in his castl… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: A sprightly tailor was employed by the great Macdonald, in his castle at Saddell, in order to make the laird a pair of trews, used in olden time. Who acts: great Macdonald. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Sprightly Tailor, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Sprightly Tailor, sentence 1

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A sprightly tailor was employed by the great Macdonald, in his castle at Saddell, in order to make the laird a pair of trews, used in olden time.

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**Who acts:** great Macdonald · **What happens:** employ, make, use · **To what, where:** sprightly tailor, castle, laird, pair

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Sprightly Tailor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (great Macdonald), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg7885:12:1
# text = A sprightly tailor was employed by the great Macdonald, in his castle at Saddell, in order to make the laird a pair of trews, used in olden time.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	sprightly	sprightly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	tailor	tailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	employed	employ	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	Macdonald	Macdonald	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	Saddell	Saddell	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	in	in	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	20	mark	_	_
18	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	fixed	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	make	make	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	laird	laird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	pair	pair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	trews	trew	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	olden	olden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **employ** | past · passive | the great Macdonald | a sprightly tailor |  | tailor's castle at Saddell |  |  | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
| 2 | **make** | to-infinitive |  | the laird |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset laird=Beneficiary pair=Product |
| 3 | **use** | participle |  | a pair of trews *not said here* |  |  | time |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7885 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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